Gravity’s Angels

Michael Swanwick

These thirteen stories established Michael Swanwick as one of the brightest stars in the science-fiction firmament. Alongside its companion volume, Tales of Old Earth, Gravity’s Angels showcases the very best of Swanwick’s considerable talent. Each story is a unique and engrossing exploration of character, conflict, and conscience.

Gravity’s Angels

by Michael Swanwick

ISBN: 1583940294 / 9781616962128

Published: 2001

Available Format(s): Trade Paperback

These thirteen stories established Michael Swanwick as one of the brightest stars in the science-fiction firmament. Alongside its companion volume, Tales of Old Earth, Gravity’s Angels showcases the very best of Swanwick’s considerable talent, including the Sturgeon Award–winner “The Edge of the World.” Each story is a unique and engrossing exploration of character, conflict, and conscience.

“I don’t think I’ve come upon as finely crafted, as deft a collection of stories in quite some time…. Buy this book. I mean it—it’s one of the best science-fiction collections I’ve ever read.”
—Fantasy & Science Fiction

“The stories collected here are luminous with the promise of his ambition, smart and allusive, dense with ideas and images, sacred and profane.”
—Interzone

“…Gravity’s Angels is an extremely impressive collection. Each story is unique unto itself, and reading them closely together does not produce any sense that one has just read the same thing half an hour earlier.”
—Locus

“This volume chronicles the career of one of the most impressive science-fiction writers of the 80s…. Every story uses the traditional materials of the genre to explore deeper issues of character and conscience…. Swanwick’s work illustrates the power and potential of contemporary science fiction.”
—Publishers Weekly

“There are a multitude of stories here…. Swanwick speaks to your heart and sensibilities about relationships, about spirituality about despair, about real people in fantastic situations, about hopes, dreams, and desire.”
—True Review

Michael Swanwick is one of the most acclaimed science-fiction and fantasy short-story writers of his generation, having received five consecutive Hugo Awards. He has also won the Theodore Sturgeon and World Fantasy awards. Swanwick’s novels include The Iron Dragon’s Daughter, a New York Times Notable Book, and the Nebula Award–winning Stations of the Tide. His short fiction has appeared in many venues, including OMNI, Penthouse, Amazing, Asimov’s Science Fiction, New Dimensions, and Full Spectrum, and his work has been translated into more than ten languages.

Praise for Michael Swanwick

“[Swanwick] is an amazingly assured writer, seemingly incapable of writing a sentence that isn’t interesting in itself, in addition to the way it moves the story forward…. This is a book that merits a place on any serious science-fiction readers’ shelf.”
—New York Review of Science Fiction

“Michael Swanwick is darkly magnificent. Tales of Old Earth is just one brilliant ride after another, a midnight express with a master at the throttle. Sit back and enjoy.”
—Jack McDevitt

“One of the most powerful and consistently inventive short story writers of his generation.”
—Gardner Dozois

“Swanwick has emerged as one of the country’s most respected authors.”
—Philadelphia Enquirer Magazine

Praise for Cigar-Box Faust and Other Miniatures

“…wonderful strangeness.”
—True Review

“One of the most powerful and consistently inventive short story writers of his generation.”
—Gardner Dozois

“Always brilliant, Swanwick shines in these quirky short pieces, with over 70 gathered in this collection, including ‘An Abecedary of the Imagination,’ with six new entries.”
—Locus

“[Swanwick] has always been versatile, and lately his versatility has extended to miniaturized, tightly compressed fictions that are alternately startling, funny, and mysterious and often possess the resonance of especially vivid dreams.”
—Washington PostBook World

“Swanwick has written a short-short story for each of the 13 dinosaurs from the Mesozoic era…. The stories are very funny, often ironic, and well worth the very brief time they take to read. Highlights include ‘The Thief of Time,’ which ironically plays with the different meanings of the egg-stealing Eoraptor; the hilarious ‘A Matter of Size,’ which gives an unexpected look at how the Giantosaurus of South America may have regarded its North American cousins; “Three Conversations,” which gives a sting-in-the-tale ending to a short adventure in kite-flying; ‘Pocket Brontosaurs,’ where Swanwick shows that Michael Crichton and Steven Spielberg may have missed the real commercial appeal of bringing dinosaurs back to life; and the darkly funny ‘Herbivores,’ which you should read for yourself. All are worth seeking out….”
—Locus

A Midwinter’s Tale
The Feast of Saint Janis
The Blind Minotaur
The Transmigration of Philip K.
Covenant of Souls
The Dragon Line
Mummer Kiss
Trojan Horse
Snow Angels
The Man Who Met Picasso
Foresight
Ginungagap
The Edge of the World